Did You Know: Brogramming, Harvard, Stereotype Threat, & Male Influencers

Did You Know? is a brief round-up of information and news that crossed NCWIT's radar this week that we think might be of interest to you. Practices or content of the news presented are not vetted or endorsed by NCWIT.

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We know that stereotype threat can negatively impact the performance of those perceived to be less capable of particular endeavors, but did you know that stereotype threat can actually hinder the performance of those who supposedly excel at the endeavor, too? Researchers at the University of Illinois found that children's exposure to broad generalizations associating the abilities of a particular social group – say, boys or girls — to "natural talent"  led the children to perform worse on a challenging activity, regardless of whether they themselves were a member of that group.

“These findings suggest we should be cautious in making pronouncements about the abilities of social groups such as boys and girls,” the study's author said. “Not only is the truth of such statements questionable, but they also send the wrong message about what it takes to succeed, thereby undermining achievement – even when they are actually meant as encouragement.”

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Did you know that students at Harvard are working to revive the school's Women in Computer Science group? Women comprised 42% of the computer science concentrators (majors) in Harvard's class of 2013, but only 22% of the class of 2014. Professors and students at the school believe that having a women in CS group will provide vital visibility, support, networking opportunities, and social gatherings to help attract and retain more women in the program. “Harvard does a good job with classes like CS50 that make computer science accessible to everyone, including women. However, there aren’t many female role models,” said one organizer.

NCWIT has seen evidence that a strategic approach, combining several recruitment and engagement techniques at once, is effective in increasing female computing students. Does your school have a women in computing group?

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Did you know the term "brogrammer" has gone viral? We first heard it a few months ago when one of our high school award-winners, now a computer science major at an Ivy League university, told us the men in her department were ignoring objections to make brogrammer t-shirts for a hackathon. A few days later we got a call from a journalist about the term, and suddenly now it feels like it's everywhere. Ironic as it sounds, the explosiveness of the "brogramming" meme (see Quora) could actually be helping to raise awareness about stereotypes and bias, and help prevent episodes of biased behavior like those that have plagued several startups recently (see Path, Squoot, Geeklist). As Google product manager Dan Shapiro said recently, “If we keep this … up, we’re going to crap all over another generation of women tech entrepreneurs. Think before you open your mouth. And if you see someone doing this, call them on it.”

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Did you know that two newly released reports identify K-12 STEM education as critical to U.S. economic competitiveness and global security? The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee report, "STEM Education: Preparing for the Jobs of the Future," addresses the disconnect between the abundance of scientific jobs projected for the U.S. workforce and the inadequate training being provided to the students who would fill them. The report cites the how 15-year-olds in the U.S. Rank 25th in math and 17th in science, among OECD nations, and notes that the share of STEM doctorates awarded to domestic students at U.S. colleges has declined from 74% in 1985 to 54% in 2006.

Meanwhile, a report from the Council on Foreign Relations, "U.S. Education Reform and National Security," finds that K-12 schools are not preparing kids to grow up to protect the U.S. "For starters, we don't have nearly enough people who are capable in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math," said former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, a member of the council's task force.

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Did you know that evidence points to men as significant influencers in whether women choose and stick with technical careers? The president and CEO of IDG Enterprises, publishers of CIO magazine, wrote recently about feeling encouraged by a growing number of CIO positions at major companies being held by women. He noted that as the father of two daughters, he thinks about their own experiences and whether it's a career he would recommend. We hope he does, because the research tells us fathers have significant influence on their daughters' career choices: one survey of technical women we conducted with the Girl Scouts found that 40% of these women had a father who worked in a scientific career (the correlation didn't exist with mothers.)

This is a great time for us to tell you about a new resource, Top Ten Ways to Be a Male Advocate for Technical Women. If you're coming to our Summit next month, make sure to stop by our resource table to pick up a copy!

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Did you know The Wall Street Journal's second annual Women in the Economy Conference is going on this week? The paper is featuring some accompanying articles about women's participation in the workplace that are worth a read. From "How to Stay Off the Glass Cliff" to "The Four Rules of Pregnancy Leave" to "The Case for Female Quotas," there are some interesting insights and pieces of advice about how to negotiate a corporate ladder that, at many workplaces, hasn't changed to accept women or minorities.

In one piece, Shelly Lazarus, chair of ad agency Ogiivy + Mather, gives an inspiring interview where she describes her firm as a true meritocracy: "I've been saying for years that women don't need remedial help. We don't need programs and mentors more than anybody else does. What we need is a true even playing field and equal opportunity to perform and be recognized."

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NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing - Ohio Affiliate

On Saturday afternoon I had the honor of attending the Ohio Affiliate Aspirations Award ceremony that was held at TechColumbus, which is a tech business development organization on the campus of Ohio State. There were 15 winners and 6 runners-up, and most of them were able to attend. I was able to speak with each of the girls and their families individually and made sure they knew how to get in touch if they have any questions. 

As with all of these events, there is so much energy in these young women, and so much pride in their parents faces. One of the girls is off to Carnegie Melon University in the fall and has already found out that there are other NCWIT girls there, so she was pretty excited. Another young woman plans to attend Columbus State in the fall, then transfer to Ohio State. Another is heading to Penn and has a summer internship lined up with GE. While each of the girls has different plans for how they will begin their career in IT, they all agreed that the NCWIT Award has given them a great start.

Finally, one of the Ohio winners was also a national winner (Kate Miller), and her mom, Sally Miller, was the keynote speaker. She is CIO of Excel and she spoke to the girls about all of the different jobs available in IT, and was a great inspiration for them.  

One of my roles was to welcome them into the NCWIT community. While most awards come at the end of a long journey, this award recognizes you for your future potential. We remind the girls that this is just the beginning - you have now joined a community of other young women like you, that also includes men and women working from K-12 to career to increase women's meaningful participation in IT.

So, another successful event with lots of girls ready to go back to their schools and encourage more girls to apply. I am personally very optimistic for the future of our field when I look at these amazing young women.  congratulations to all of them!

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Did You Know?

Did You Know? is a brief round-up of information and news that crossed NCWIT's radar this week that we think might be of interest to you. Practices or content of the news presented are not vetted or endorsed by NCWIT.

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Did you know that African American women, though considered a "double-minority," aren't necessarily penalized the same way as either women or African American men when it comes to leadership? While cultural norms expect white men to be assertive and aggressive leaders, black men and white women often experience backlash for that kind of behavior in the workplace.

A new study has found that rather than being viewed similarly to black men and white women, black women seem to be expected to act assertively. “Black women leaders occupy a unique space,” said one of the study's authors. “These findings show that just because a role is prescribed to women in general doesn’t mean that it will be prescribed for black women.”

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Did you know that the graduation rate for Latinos in U.S. colleges is the highest it's been in seven years? A recent report from Excelencia in Education says that nationally, Latinos make up 22 percent of the K-12 public school population and 15 percent of the U.S. population overall; by the year 2025, it's estimated that nearly one-quarter of the nation’s college-age population will be Latino.  

Does your department have strategies in place for attracting and retaining Latinos, such as summer bridge programs, community college articulation agreements, student communities or cohorts, or faculty advising and mentoring? For additional ideas, check out the "Growing What Works" database from Exelencia in Education.

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Did you know about ilearnedtoprogram.com? The site was created by Ben Chun, a computer science graduate of MIT and a teacher at San Francisco's Galileo Academy, to give people a place to share their one-sentence experiences of learning to program.

On his blog, Ben shares some of the themes the site has uncovered: in a word cloud he created from the submissions, some of the most prominent words include "make," "wanted", "Commodore", and "Dad" -- and the submissions are moving, familiar, and even humorous ("I learned to program...because the guy I shared an office with only talked about Phil Collins and Lingo — and I really didn't want to learn about Phil Collins — Katie").

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Did you know that 8 in 10 people believe creativity is essential to innovation and economic growth, but only one in four people feel like their workplace values it? Fully three-quarters of respondents in a recent survey said they feel their employers value productivity over creativity. This makes sense, given how most businesses work and the need to get things done, but research also illustrates that problems are "often solved by people working at the margins of their fields, who were able to think outside the box."

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Did you know that 25% of large U.S. companies have peer-mentoring programs? Recently it seems mentoring has trended towards more goal-oriented sponsorship programs, where a senior employee takes responsibility for a younger employee's success track; and reverse-mentoring programs, where young people co-mentor their more senior colleagues.

Fortune magazine this week has a look at two big companies, Microsoft and KPMG, whose programs focus on peer mentoring. Peer mentoring is designed to match managers with others of similar rank across departments and with varying levels of tenure. Microsoft's program has been so successful that it has developed a waiting list. "The goal is ultimately to drive it down deeper into the organization," said a KPMG representative about its program. "It really helps with retention - and gives folks a line of sight to a number of opportunities across the firm."

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Aspirations in Computing Awards - Wisconsin

On Tuesday, April 17, the Wisconsin Award for Aspirations in Computing ceremony was held at BMO Financial Institute for Learning in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The event honored young women for their accomplishments in computing and technical abilities.

The event started with a brief introduction to NCWIT and SIM.  Kim Ehlert, Associate Dean of Business Information Technology at Waukesha County Technical College, and Ruthe Farmer, Director of Strategic Initiatives at NCWIT, explained NCWIT’s purpose and shared some facts on the number of women in IT positions. Farmer shared that currently only 18% of computer science degrees are awarded to women. That is a big drop from the peak in 1991 when females received 37%. The information technology workforce is growing, and currently only 29% of the industry’s need for IT professionals will be filled based on the number of people enrolled in IT related education. Because of this need for jobs, the opportunities for women in computing-related jobs are endless. NCWIT encourages women to join the workforce as IT professionals.

The keynote speaker was Nancy Olson, CIO for the City of Milwaukee.  She spoke on three main points of advice she gives to young women: get out of your comfort zone; look for new opportunities; and look for what is next and prepare for it. She said not to be afraid to learn about something from another industry. This will help you be more valuable to your employer, it will help you understand your own field better, and it will help you in your future career. She also encouraged the girls to consider a career in public service. Recognized at the event were:

Wisconsin Aspirations in Computing Educator Award Winner:

• Robert Getka, from Parker High School in Janesville

2012 Wisconsin Affiliate Winners:

• Winner: Kelly DeLano from St. Francis High School
• Winner: Mary O’Leary from Parker High School
• Winner: Ashley Rohn from Fennimore High School
• Runner Up: Amy Bartos from Menomonee Falls High School
• Runner Up: Larissa Hakes from Menomonie High School

The winners received special NCWIT WI Affiliate tote bags with prizes and engraved plaques with their name, school, and award; and they participated in a raffle to win an iPad3, Kindle, or Kindle Fire. UW-Madison also offered a $1,000 scholarship to any winner who enrolls in a computer science program at UW-Madison.

Closing remarks were made by Joe Kmoch, Phil Zweig, and Ruthe Farmer. After the event, refreshments were provided by culinary students from Waukesha County Technical College.

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